


The Paths

by Tish



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 09:50:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8008786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/pseuds/Tish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They walk different paths, but they are together, even if the light-years separate them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Paths

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



She watched her brother as he studied the charts, deep in discussion with an officer. The control room was quiet and utilitarian. The only comfort there was found in the tired, determined eyes of the other people. There was much work to be done.

 _Brother_. She dwelled on the idea of who Luke was, all that he meant to her, all the things she somehow shared with him. She dwelled on the idea of what Vader was, _who_ he was. The invisible lines that joined her, Luke and Vader throughout eternity. Shock, horror, and a wretched feeling of pity competed for dominance as she thought about him.

Curiosity and a sense of wonder edged out the darker feelings as she thought about how she came to be, how such accidents of birth, and deliberate actions of people set them all on this path to either destruction and despair, or the triumph of peace and prosperity.

 

Thoughts and feelings battled inside her, her fists clenching, then stretching out to relieve the tension. Ice clenched at her heart as she relived moments from a darker time, obliterating the moments of love and joy she'd held onto so far. 

She had felt every particle of her being torn apart during the destruction of Alderaan, felt it more deeply than the mere act of empathy, cutting her deeper than the horror of witnessing an entire world of people utterly annihilated. She knew now that the Force flowed through her, untempered, untamed, and untapped.

Leia knew which path Luke would take, but her concerns were much less abstract. Right now, the practicalities of rebuilding the crumbling husk of the Empire outweighed spirituality.

Luke looked over and smiled, nodding in understanding. Leia held her head high. So much to do. Time to get started.

 

Another day, another planet. The mountains held scars and torrential wind damage from thousands of years, yet they endured. The night cloaked them, making their silhouettes fierce and menacing against the pale starlit sky.

“So, it's time?” Leia looked into the darkness, before turning to Luke's calm eyes.

“I've done all I could here,” Luke replied, his voice hesitant. “Well, almost. We have to walk this path together, but separately. I know your fears. I share them, but we can overcome them.”

Leia turned to face him directly. “We've never really spoken about him. We skirt around the fact, gloss over our inheritance, we ignore the darkness in front of us. Inside us.”

Luke held her gaze. “There's darkness and light inside us. We have to learn to live with it. Our father is part of our heritage, but it doesn't mean he's our future.”

Leia watched the sky lighten, muted colours of the dawn beginning to tint the sky. The highest points of the mountains ranges picked out soft tones of red and orange and the planet rotated towards the sun. “The light chases away the dark. That's the easy part. Then the night comes again.”

“People aren't planets. We have a choice, a heart, a mind. We can use the Force to light the way, to build, to learn.” Luke smiled as the dawn colours became more intense. “To love.”

“Love itself can't rebuild the destroyed, can't feed the hungry, or heal the sick, Luke.” 

“It's a starting point, though. It goes hand in hand with practical efforts. We have to become what Anakin couldn't. We won't end up lost in the dark side,” Luke's voice was barely a whisper, yet Leia heard it clear inside her mind. “The Force guides some more than others, yet it's always there, to nurture and teach us.”

 

“You'll always be here,” Leia placed a hand on her chest. “I'll always feel you with me.”

“And you'll forever live in my heart, my soul. It'll be as if I'm just in another room,” Luke took a step back and gently held Leia's arms one final time. “It's time.”

 

Another decade, another quadrant. “It comes to all of us.” Leia spoke to the empty forest. The path was worn and strewn with vegetation, but it was still a path. The darkness had claimed her son, and now Han had paid the price.

She looked up at the ancient trees, their branches reaching desperately towards the light. For years the Rebel forces had done the same, trying to escape the darkness. She thought of Ben, subsumed into the dark side, swathed in the unimaginable throes of hell. Would redemption and light only come at the moment of death for him?

She thought of Luke and a little warmth filled her heart, tiny tendrils of hope wrapping around her soul. He was there, he knew somehow. Hope and light radiated from the depths of the forest, inside her, and throughout the galaxy. 

The force sang its silent song to her, invisible, inaudible, intangible. She listened to herself, feeling the sunlight dappling through the canopy of trees. Pain, pleasure, love and hate whispered to her, enticing her, daring her. She inhaled the soft scents of the greenery. It lived, it endured, so would she. She lad long ago moved away from feelings of self-pity, of helplessness, of despair.

 

The future and the past entwined themselves together and around her. The light would overcome the dark, death and life would feed and nurture each other. 

Somewhere, far, far away, Luke felt a surge of love and determination. It rippled all around him, enveloping him. The Force coiled around him and and he knew what it meant. There was agonising pain mixed in with the love, but it was tempered, endurable. He watched a sea bird arc and dive over the craggy, wind-swept rocks. It glided and hovered far above him, waiting and scanning the sea. Luke nodded just as the bird swooped down and down to the water, flying up victorious with a fish in its mouth. The Force swooped inside him, arcing up into new vibrancy and Luke knew it was time. He was ready.

Leia knew that, for her, the Force didn't manifest itself as the ability to levitate rocks, to manipulate minds. It flowed through her in some ill-defined way, something barely understood. But it was her way, and she'd use it for light and good. She was ready.


End file.
